27 quotes found
“Grace has a way of sneaking up on you like that. When you least deserve it.”
“Maybe that's why Jesus was so fond of parables: Nothing describes the indescribable like a good yarn.”
“Trying to explain or define grace is like catching the wind in a cardboard box or describing the color green.”
“Good morning, God. Another beautiful day. I'm still here, and so is the sun. Thank you. Right, now let's get down to business.”
“Together, on his back porch, his cigarette smoke rising like incense to the heavens, we spoke to the God of grace we both are so grateful to know up close and personal. It may be the most beautiful...”
“I've heard it said that grace is God reaching God's hands into the world. And the Bible tells us that we are part of the body of Christ, that if we let the Spirit move through us, we can become the...”
“Then round about the age of twenty-five, I was tired of being tired of being scared about doing something that, if I deconstruct it honestly, might somehow cost me my salvation and make God love me...”
“Jesus must have had man hands. He was a carpenter, the Bible tells us. I know a few carpenters, and they have great hands, all muscled and worn, with nicks and callused pads from working wood toget...”
“Wait, go back to that Southern Baptist part, Julia said, interrupting, as she does. Are you a born-again? articulating her question as if she were asking me if I were really a headhunter or a Marti...”
“I have a complicated spiritual history. Here's the short version: I was born into a Mass-going Roman Catholic family, but my parents left the church when I was in the fifth grade and joined a South...”
“My nun, which is how I think of her, was the most profound witness for God's love I've ever encountered in this world. She was a magnet for lost souls, a petite fortress of strength and uncondition...”
“Why grace? Because some days, it's the only thing we have in common. Because it's the one thing I'm certain is real. Because it's the reason I'm here. Because it's the oxygen of religious life, or ...”
“Grace to me is a little bit of extra help when you're feeling stuck or doomed or, probably, hopefully, out of good ideas on how to save yourself, and how to salvage the situation or the friendship ...”
“This is where Jean's stubbornness and, perhaps, God's stubborn grace came into play. My definition of grace would be multifaceted, but part of it would certainly be God's passion for brokenness. He...”
“God can and does use anything God chooses to get our attention. Who's to say the hawk wasn't sent as an agent of grace to catch my wandering attention and quiet what Buddhists might call my monkey ...”
“Some theologians argue that one kind of grace is better than another, and that some people think they're experiencing divine grace when it's actually just common.To me, that's like bickering about ...”
“We're so worried about the legal details of crossing doctrinal t's and dotting sociopolitical i's that we miss the big picture. The love picture. The one thing Jesus was really clear about: LOVE. I...”
“In her inestimable audacity, Julia was the catalyst in my life for something beautiful. I hadn't anticipated herhadn't even wanted her, truthfullybut there she was. A little something extra that ma...”
“Such arguments remind me of a scene from Woody Allen's movie Manhattan, where a group of people is talking about sex at a cocktail party and one woman says that her doctor told her she had been hav...”
“Sometimes grace is having the strength to persevere through the storm.Sometimes it's having the guts to rebuild, to take a chance, to follow your nose and your heart rather than your head.Sometimes...”
